


The Spaces Between Maims

by GothMoth



Series: Phantomized [2]
Category: Danny Phantom, Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Amity Is Danny's Lair, Amity's A Bit Of A Deathtrap, Comedy, Crossover, Dan Lewis Is Just A Really Good Dude, FentonWorks Is A Deathtrap, Gen, Let Danny say fuck, Light Angst, Queue Danny's Multiple Alien-Related Freak-outs, The TrashFire Bois, Vee's Confused And Doesn't Know What To Do With This Alright?, Worldbuilding, danny's a little shit, eddie's a dumbass
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-18
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-26 20:35:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30111675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GothMoth/pseuds/GothMoth
Summary: Danny and Eddie have officially met, Danny's got legs again, Jack and Maddie know some shit, and Lewis is currently stuck in the Fenton household.So what comes next? Chaos, bullshit, and a crisis or two, of course. With a side of aliens, ghosts, two dumbasses, a doctor, the villainous rich, two somehow still oblivious ectoologists, and 3 teenage human ghost hunters.(Collection of DP/Venom crossover one-shots taking place in between Legless On Maim and Clocked And Maimed)
Relationships: Dan Lewis/Anne Weying, Danny Fenton/Valerie Gray, Eddie Brock/Venom Symbiote
Series: Phantomized [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1946245
Comments: 16
Kudos: 85





	1. Murder Checks In At The Ghost Hotel

**Author's Note:**

> Each chapter is basically a one-shot and the lengths will absolutely vary. Some may be 1k or two, other times I might drop a 25k monster chapter on ya'll.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eddie decides not to live like a bum for however long he’s going to be staying here and that here is decidedly really fucking weird. Lewis just wants his patient to heal for Peet’s sake.  
> Vee, to top it all off, proposes the ‘pile of heads’ method to Danny.

Eddie showing up in town honestly isn’t much of a surprise to Lewis, what is slightly surprising is the guy apparently actually got his own hotel room instead of trying to couch surf. Since Lewis is staying with the Fenton’s, he rather expected the guy to ask. But hey, Eddie did have a sizeable amount of cash at his disposal now so it’s not like the guy couldn’t afford it. And Lewis -in what he knows Eddie would refer to as him being ‘a really good dude’ but in Lewis’s opinion is just common courtesy- was more than eager to help Eddie organise and set up shop. 

Walking through the room door, Lewis is honestly impressed that Amity’s one and only hotel actually has some pretty nice rooms. Is it all ghost-themed? Yes. Green curtains, green bed sheets, lamps shaped like blob-looking ghosts; at least the pillows were purple. How they got a tv in here that’s shaped like the ghost emoji he isn’t going to ask about. Turning around as Eddie walks in himself and glances around, since he just went straight to FentonWorks for some reason. 

Lewis chuckles as Vee immediately stretches out of Eddie up to the blob-shaped ghost lap, “LOOK EDDIE! GREEN SYMBIOTE!”, then squints at the lamp, “WITH NO TEETH”, looking back to Eddie and sounding offended, “THEY GOT IT WRONG! HOW DARE!”. Eddie has to physically grab them to keep them from taking a bite out of the room decor. “Vee no. I am not paying to replace that and I think that’s supposed to be some child-friendly ghost thing. This town’s got a fucking _theme_ and it knows it”. 

Lewis clicks on the tv, watching the DP logo bounce around a bit before the channel guide pops up, “you don’t say”. 

Eddie huffs as he flops on the bed, bags discarded on the floor, “gotta hand it to the kid, his symbol bullshit is marketing gold. Still with the fucking _spandex_ though. Skin or not. Which what the fuck’s up with that? He died in his symbol? Bullshit right there”. Vee decides to actually be decent and shove away Eddie’s crap for him; though absolutely getting green slime on at least half of it. 

Lewis shrugs, even still not much about Danny seemed to follow logic. “Something about him undoing and redoing his own death. Added the symbol before redying”. That sentence should not make any amount of sense, and yet it does. 

Eddie chuckles and sits up straight, ignoring Vee digging their head in drawers, “bet he’s totally sick of dying, I know I am. Even if it’s just bloody well fucking funny now”. Lewis points at him because really? “You never really died, Eddie, you just should have. Explicitly should have. Danny survives things that should kill any human practically daily. I pity his doctor”; they share smirks over that one. Really though, if Lewis tried to stay on top of any and all Danny-repeated injuries, he’d get run off his feet. Which is really only an example of how badly the kid really did need to learn to be his own doctor and why he was so good at it; that and probably natural skill. 

“Speaking of injuries, I legit threw in the towel with trying to work through this place's bullshit hospital servers. If even Eddie goddamn Brock can’t piece together your shit systems then you’ve got a fair few fucking issues. I’d have better luck asking a fucking potted ficus who comes and goes and gets what treatments. I’d write about that nightmare, definitely illegal and abusive, set up if doing so wouldn’t corrode my eyes”. 

Lewis points at him, “I wouldn’t knock it, only reason he’s not still in the hospital. As far as both my and Amity’s hospitals know, he’s in the Amity one. And you should see what his friend did to my hospitals servers. He corrupted Danny’s file beyond recognition and made the technician actually cry. Granted the government stormed the building and sprayed chemicals everywhere, so that was worse; but those kids are something else”. 

Eddie blinks and grins in that wolfishly way he does when he’s found his next target, “the government corruption and misuse of power scandal dead guy hinted at was not bullshit”. Though taking on the actual _government_ government was a bigger fish than he liked. Way bigger. 

_‘NO FISH IS TOO BIG FOR **US** ’_. Eddie’s only going to dignify that with a chuckle. _‘EAT ALL THE FISH’_. Yup, still ignoring that. _‘BATHE THE STREETS IN GOVERNMENT FISH CARCASSES!’._ Hurray for sounding like a proud and out murderer. Vee’s head actually pokes out from a random drawer and the only word that could describe them right now is ‘preening’, like a peacock. Vee practically smashes their face into his, “I’LL SHOW YOU PREENING A COCK!”; knocking him over. 

Lewis chucks a pillow at them. Thankfully Vee just dissolves back into Eddie’s body. There are plenty things Lewis could go his life without seeing, Eddie/Vee have filled a couple of the slots. Most of those things were _interesting_ at least. Positives. Shaking his head as Eddie sits himself back up, “Eddie, as much as I love you guys, the G.I.W. are way out of your league, they got warrants two separate times at the drop of a hat without even having to leave the lobby. The entirety of this town may hate them but they also fear them, and for good reason”.

“You say that like it’s gonna stop me”. 

Lewis sighs, expected but still, he tried. “There’s also the ghost political aspect”. 

“Then I’ll ask dead guy, he _is_ ghost political crap”. Eddie moves to pull out his notebook and some sheets, grimacing at the texture and sighing. Lifting up the soogy papers, “really Vee? Fuck you too, cunt. You’re a dog-that doesn’t make a fucking lick of sense-being in my body doesn’t suddenly make me a Klyntar-oh shove your ‘half’ in a Brussel sprout and eat it”. Lewis watches him wheeze and curl up a bit like he just got punched in the stomach. Eddie wheezes a bit more, “dick”, and shakes off one of the papers. Looking to Lewis and holding it out, “also, check this out. What the fuck is up with this towns hotel specific insurance requirement”. 

Lewis skims it and blinks, well that’s the longest wrongful death clause he’s ever seen. Hotel was really covering their bases, the little asterisk saying that literally nothing was covered if you so much as stepped on the FentonWorks steps was rather hilarious though. “FentonWorks sure has a reputation”, handing it back, “and considering my car got thrown into the sidewalk before I even finished my shifts, they need this. This town is a death trap that just doesn’t let anyone actually die in said deathtraps”. As if to prove that point, the news announces that Phantom was spotted fighting Skulker again. 

Eddie blinks, “hey that’s the hotel”, a loud ping reverberates on the window just as a small bomb is shown bouncing off a window on the tv. Lewis chuckles with a head shake, “even his timing is comical”, glancing to the window, “at least you know it’s durable now”. Eddie’s just rather humorously mulling over the fact that he nearly got a bomb chucked into his room, one way to make a first impression. 

Eddie gets off the bed, holding up a finger, “speaking of durable. Check it”, and goes through the motions of trying to tear the bed sheet, Vee popping out to lend a toothy hand (mouth). The sheet doesn’t so much as stretch. “This has to be so many safety hazards, someone could try strangling themselves and even I couldn’t cut the fucker loose”. Eddie is here for durable shit but come on. Though if it’s blood-proof Eddie is stealing these immediately; Vee has wrecked so many bedsheets. Well and Eddie being too damn lazy to clean up after their Venoming properly. But Eddie goddamn Brock has never been one for ‘clean’ and that sure as shit ain’t changing now that he’s attached to sentient slime. 

Lewis taps his chin and searches around for the sheets tag, revealing the little FW symbol printed there. Eddie quirks an eyebrow, “so the bigots who shoot ghosts, make guns, built a fucking _hovercar_ , and are the key researchers on an entire species; also supply the only hotel with their bedsheets? Fuck the government, those two have a stranglehold on this city, damn”. Even if the entire town seemed to agree that FentonWorks was an actual death trap, and considering the dead kid that was probably accurate. “That’s it, this town absolutely is a pocket dimension”. 

Lewis chuckles, “you’re not exactly wrong. It’s vaguely a disconnected part of the Ghost Zone due to Danny’s lair situation, not that anyone actually knows that”. Eddie just shakes his head, “so he mentioned”. 

The bang on the tv recaptures their attention, showing Danny actually getting _decapitated_ -or at least that’s what it looked like, Lewis wasn’t about to claim the kid couldn’t just detach his head or turn it invisible- and then stabbed directly through the spine; like if Lewis were to guess, it looked to be clean between the T4 and T5 thoracic vertebrae. At least the robot ghost is precise; little bit less bone damage that way. If Danny even had a solid spine at the time. 

Eddie takes in his friends ‘I’m so completely done with this bullshit’ facial expression and smirks, “looks like your patient could use a check-up, Mr. Doctor”, watching the screen as the dead teen runs off with his head under his armpit, seems like fitting emphasis. Vee’s very loudly cackling in his head. Lewis just sighs and walks out the door, “call me if you need anything. It better not be for help with decapitation though”. 

Eddie looks back to the tv as the door clicks shut. _‘LITTLE PREDATOR COULD MAKE HIS OWN PILE OF HEADS. PILES OF **HIS OWN** HEADS’. _

“You sound way too eager about that, babe. Doubt he’ll go for that, but fuck it, ask him anyway”. 

* * *

**:Bonus Scene:**

One apparent fact about Danny, Eddie learns, is that the kid can indeed make a pile of his own heads, just still attached to him. ‘Cause apparently _some people_ are too chicken shit for self-decapitation for no reason. Second surprising fact Eddie learns, Vee can really truly have as many ‘heads’ as they want. Which well, is what lead to this situation.

“Oh yeah?!? Well it’s ‘pin the Danny head on the alien face mass’ game now!”. 

Eddie thinks this is officially the weirdest bullshit he has ever seen, as Danny lobs head after head -that’s still attached to him via a little noodle whisp thing- directly at Eddie; Eddie’s not going to even bother questioning why all the heads are all yelling pointlessly. While Vee is practically a multi-headed blob on the ground holding Eddie up and just whipping him around like a baseball bat, sending the Danny heads back while trying to nip Danny with one of their many heads. Eddie’s elected to just accept his baseball bat fate right now; he got used to people using him as a punching bag, when he picked fights a little above his weight class, a long ass time ago. But still. 

This is some bullshit.


	2. You Wanna Know? You REALLY Wanna Know?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Neigh immortal aliens and alternate death dimension princes, talk about a learning curve. Poor Eddie, all he wanted was a decent scoop. And Lewis isn’t sure if Danny makes for a good alien therapist or not.

It’s not surpising Eddie finds himself back on the Fenton household couch sooner rather than later; with Lewis shaking his head at the pair from the background. Eddie flips to a blank page in his notebook in a way that is clearly supposed to be as noisy as possible. “Enough about my work stuff-”.

Danny snorts cutting him off, “yeah enough about serial killers”, then drags himself over the back of the couch to actually sit down, CyberSteps bending awkwardly all the while. 

Eddie rolls his eyes, “says the guy sharing a couch with one-I am not gloating about that”, rolling his eyes seemingly at the ceiling, “ignoring you now”, looking back to Danny, “how about we hear more about this overthrowing a ghost monarch and what sounds like a hostile take over from a foreign dimension”, Eddie leans over almost menacingly, pen and paper at the ready. 

Danny eyeballs the note pad, “dude, you do realise this town is pretty well considered conspiracy theory bullshit and writing about it seriously will probably cost your job”, chuckling a little, “that’s what happened to Harriet after all”, sticking up a finger animatedly, “also the G.I.W. try to keep this place a government secret, they only mildly suck at that”. 

Eddie’s grin is just a little sharp and thus vaguely ominous, “we are not above dining on the government”. Earning a glare from Danny, even if Danny can’t entirely say he’s against the G.I.W. getting beat up; just not _murdered_. Danny grumbles, “I am not your personal bait. Also, the G.I.W. are _my_ problem to deal with and I will deal with it... eventually”, Danny studiously ignores Lewis’s disbelieving snort in the background. 

Eddie rolls his eyes, “there you go being too moral again. But let’s say I’m just asking for a story here, and kid? I have burned my career down to the ground and stomped on the smoking embers repeatedly and enthusiastically. Getting an alien up my ass was one of the good end results”, and grins. 

Danny quirks an eyebrow, “I could make a few masochism jokes there. What? You decided to make the world burn and since you’re your own world that you needed to burn too?”, leaning back against one of the couches armrests, arms behind his head and crossing his CyberSteps ankles, “you wanna go and play my PR go right ahead, ‘cause obviously this is coming from Phantom’s mouth, not Fenton’s”, then blinking and going a bit wide-eyed, wait a gosh-darn second... “wait that’s actually great”, pointing a ‘foot’ right into the guy’s face, “nobodies gonna or can kill you, you could totally do my PR”. Danny’s not dumb, he knows working officially with Phantom was just inherently dangerous, he wasn’t gonna risk someone just to improve his public image. 

Lewis shakes his head and pushes off the wall, speaking off-handedly as he goes to put away his now empty cup, “making people look good isn’t Eddie’s forte”. Lewis is absolutely sticking around for this conversation though. Eddie doesn’t even sound insulted, “damn fucking straight, people should fear me writing about them”, then makes a slight choking sound, “fear _us_ , Jesus”. 

Danny snorts, rolls his eyes, and grumbles, “you want fear but get praise, I don’t want fear and yet...”, and grumbles incoherently for a beat. 

“Eh the disenfranchised poor and youths would rather their oppressors and true criminals get made permanently dead over just slapped on the wrist”, rolling his hand around, “only to do it all over again”. Vee pokes their noodle head out, “LET SOME DIE, THEN THEY’LL LIKE YOU MORE FOR NOT LETTING THEM DIE”. Eddie pats Vee’s head, “don’t think he’s going to go for that one, Vee”. But then a cooler drops from the ceiling directly onto Vee, who promptly attacks it, Eddie winds up chucking the notepad halfway across the room as a result. Lewis quirks an eyebrow slightly but does go fetch the thrown notepad. 

Eddie looks up, “where the fuck”, while Vee gives the mangled, and suspiciously oozing, cooler another snarl just for good measure or some shit. You can’t intimidate a fucking _cooler_ into submission. Vee whips their head around to Eddie, “WATCH ME BITCH!”, and proceeds to mangle the cooler even further; it’s not even going to resemble its former self in a minute here.

Danny grins meanly, apparently not giving a shit about the symbiote-induced destruction, “I phased it through the ceiling”, pointing at Vee’s head, “you, no murder by proxy or however the phrase goes. No one is allowed to die here”, grimacing, “let’s go back to the topic of death before death before my death that used to rule death”. Lewis points at the cooler, Danny just shrugs and waves him off; turning his attention back squarely on Eddie. Lewis shakes his head and elects to clean up the destroyed containment device himself. 

Eddie rolls his eyes at the teenager, “overpowered super suit, you ain’t saving everyone”.

Danny pretty well snarls, “yes I damn well can”; the day he fucks up saving the day is the day one Danny Phantom has a serious mental breakdown. Eddie just rolls his eyes over again, “good luck with that one”. Vee actually smacks him with a tendril, “LET TINY PREDATOR HAVE DELUSIONS. BACK TO PREDATOR BESTING PREDATOR”, and grins all teeth at Danny; apparently over Danny lowkey assaulting them with a cooler. 

Lewis sits down in the armchair, having returned from the dumpster conveniently located just outside of FentonWorks; suspiciously convenient actually, “I’m fairly interested myself. You didn’t actually say how that all happened. Just that Pariah woke up from some kind of coma-like sleep thanks to a villains plot, everyone ran away from him, he abducted your town, and you beat him up”. 

Danny glares at the doc, “you are insufferable, Ancients, doc”, looking to Vee and grinning while leaning his face closer to the _freaking alien,_ “let’s play a game”, Danny’s grin is downright aggressively mischievous, his eyes even taking a crescent shape, “for every question your meat sack-”.

“Hey”, Eddie grumbling, “even if that’s true”. He was a meat sack but he was a meat sack that pulled his goddamn weight. 

Danny acts like Eddie hadn’t so much as spoken a word, “-asks, I get to ask one of my own”.

Eddie has one Hell of an ominous feeling about this, but fuck it, ominous feelings never stopped him before. Heck! That usually meant he had a good story just waiting to be torn into, possibly _literally_. Sighing exasperatedly, “fine”. Vee promptly launches at his face and nips his cheek, “HE DIDNT ASK YOU”. Danny smirks, “he’s your other half, it counts”, and stares at Eddie. 

Eddie looks between the staring overpowered ghost teen that could probably crush and/or poison him and the possibly staring -even after a year of the body roommate crap he can never really tell- alien symbiote that could eat him from the inside out; both of which are doing said staring directly in his face. “Whelp, rock and a hard place”, fuck it, looking to Danny and readying his pen, “so based on what little I could find in public records the town just disappeared but a little snooping shows it teleported away under a green dome after you pulled out a sword from the ground, care to explain that one?”. Oh he can so feel bits of his liver mysteriously disappearing. Almost as if some strange being was taking bites out.

Danny looks just a little disgruntled, be an ass why don’t you. People make mistakes, dick. “Wow yeah you clearly go the ‘make people look bad’ route first. I didn’t know that would happen alright. A certain other prick, who actually staged the entire thing like Lewis just pointed out, did though”, furrowing his eyebrows, wait the only official online database-y places that knew that were the freaking G.I.W. idiots, “you hacked the G.I.W.?”.

“Yes, and that counts as your question”, Eddie smirks very smugly. While Danny shrieks very _very_ petulantly, “what! No!”. Vee sticks out their tongue at the kid and gives Eddie’s stubble a nuzzle. A liver reforming nuzzle. 

Eddie smirks, steamrolling over the teens continued whining sound, “so this king ghost getting freed from sleep, like Dan said, and attacking a town was indeed just a set-up farce?”. Danny glares at Lewis slightly, stupid doc explaining things even slightly and thus limiting the number of questions he got to ask the _freaking alien_ right now. Regardless Danny snorts and rights himself, he’ll take any and all chances to get in a dig on Vlad, “psycho ghost wanted to become king, he needed Pariah to be on the loose for that. But the dumbass nutcase wasn’t strong enough to actually beat the guy so he set things up to force me to have to fight the guy myself”, snickering a little, “I just wasn’t supposed to actually win. That’s what he gets for underestimating me”. Eddie snorts, “like sacrificing a lamb as a pawn to weaken an opponent”. Vee grins, “VICTORY IS VICTORY. VICTORY TASTES DELICIOUS”. 

Danny chuckles, “just tasted like pain and unconsciousness to me”.

Eddie nods, “aright next-”.

Danny cuts him off immediately, “hey! That wasn’t even _a_ question!”, and just mildly modifies the air pressure to make the guy feel like he’s choking just a bit. Looking to Vee while Eddie coughs, Danny does not care that the alien looks kinda not happy; blame their host. “Why are you black? Does it mean anything?”. Lewis chuckles to himself off to the side, figures Danny would ask about that immediately. 

“Pretty sure that’s two”. Danny scowls at him before snapping his attention right back to Vee. Kids got determination, he’ll give him that much. Regardless Eddie mutters, “I expected something about the people eating”. Danny rolls his eyes, “Lewis already explained that”, then goes right back to staring at Vee. Eddie’s starting to get why Anne had apparently insisted on Dan making him not one but two chocolate cakes.

Vee does what amounts as squinting for them, Danny doesn’t react in the slightest; beyond furthered staring anyway. “THE KLYNTAR ARE A DARK TONED RACE” 

Danny whines, “but why? That was my question too!”. Eddie isn’t even going to bother interjecting lest the kid goes full-blown overboard again. 

“NO REASON”.

“That’s not an answer”.

Vee’s snarl is slightly excessively aggressive now, “NO REASON”. 

Danny scoots forward to the point where he’s practically touching nose to smooth symbiote face, “that’s not an answer”. Eddie can pretty much feel Vee getting agitated and making unhappy swirls all over his spine.

Hence why Eddie’s not surprised in the least when Vee goes through the ‘I’m scary, fear me’ motions by rearing up, collecting more of their mass to make themselves all big, and practically roars down at the teens face, “ **NO REASON!** ”. Eddie does not get this kid, as Danny just grins up at what is absolutely a nightmare-inducing face to any sane person. Danny even has the gall to sound _teasing_ , “oOoOo sore spot”, looking around Vee’s face at Lewis, “guess you weren’t kidding, they don’t like talking about themselves”, then moving to look back at Vee with a wide shit-eating grin, “that’s still not an answer”. 

Vee snarls at him, looks back to Eddie, “FEED HIM TO A SHARK”. Eddie smirks, “and here I thought you liked him, Vee”. Vee just snarls in his face. But Danny surprise grabs Vee’s mass and drags himself up to be nearly hugging Vee’s head, “you look kinda like a shark, you know. Like a badass killer whale”, looking very intently at Vee’s eyes, “by the Realms, say your eyes don’t work the same”. 

Eddie chuckles almost awkwardly, “kid you are giving them such an endearing look that I’m almost jealous”. Vee makes a shrieking sound and zips out from under Danny while shrinking down some, and curling under Eddie’s chin, “NO ONLY EDDIE’S”. Danny flops unceremoniously down onto the couch; CyberSteps bent at an odd angle. Eddie pats Vee, “relax love, don’t be a dumbass”, Vee bites his neck for that, “also, pretty sure that absolutely _is_ a second question, Danny”, and smirks. Teenager successfully distracted. If Eddie couldn’t even get that stuff out of them, then a kid they just meet certainly wasn’t going to.

Danny lifts up a finger, voice muffled slightly by the couch cushion, “point. Still totally looks like a killer whaler though”. Vee practically purrs, “VERY _KILLER_ ”. Which Danny actually snickers at before propping himself up on his elbows, “emphasis on the killer”. Earning a grin from the symbiote, bygones are bygones apparently. 

Also apparently Danny’s a tenacious little shit though, “whales are also prominently black. Why? Because they developed to be adapted to their environment, allowing them to be well camouflaged within said environment. So what about symbiotes?”. Vee shrieks, opening their mouth as far as it will go. Eddie knows that makes them look like a mass of teeth pretty much. Eddie nearly chokes when Danny _shoves his head in Vee’s gaping maw. “So cool”_. And for once Vee’s seems genuinely stunned into silence. The entire constantly flowing mass that makes them up actually stilling for once, and their eyes are blown wide. The kid is freaking _giggling_. 

Danny is having a goddamn _blast_ his head is a mouth, _an alien mouth._ How cool is that? And it’s not like he has to worry about his neck getting nibbled on since he’s apparently firmly off the symbiote menu. Deciding to be a bit of a dick, Danny sticks out his tongue and effectively lick/pokes the back of Vee’s throat. Look, if shits gonna be weird, then Danny’s gonna make it weirder. Plus, in the name of all the Ancients, he is getting his answers. 

Vee almost violently wiggles and in such a way that it makes Eddie giggle slightly, and violent snaps back away from Danny and splatters back against Eddie like a gooey mess. Eddie blinks, black goo covering his face, “Vee, are you seriously ticklish? And there of all places? But also-”, flicking his eyes to Danny as Vee reabsorbs back into him, “ _-what the fuck_ ”. Lewis actually excused himself to the kitchen to laugh. 

Danny just pouts, “but my question”, deciding fuck it and changing tactics. Going from a pout to a very intentionally sinister grin in the blink of an eye; which gets one very hard blink out of Eddie. “You know... I don’t _have_ to ask. I could just overshadow you and forcibly view your memories via osmosis. Or fly to your planet and ask some others. Or reverse history and watch the creation of your species in real time. Or ask Desiree for a wash that would horribly backfire and probably make you have to relive everything. Or-”. 

Vee goes all face burster and uses Eddie’s face to snarl, “ **NO**!”. Lewis just mutters to himself that what are probably at least vaguely threats of torture do not count as therapy. Eddie blinks as his face returns to normal, even that didn’t phase the kid, just what Hell has this kid seen? “Can you really do all that?”. Eddie Brock, certified dumbass, is out of his fucking depth. Reversing time? What is this bullshit? A child’s cartoon? Fuck this shit. Eddie is left stunned though when Vee plops a little blob head on his shoulder, “WE’RE CREATED FROM THE ABYSS. FROM SHADOW. NO WATCHING MEMORIES, TINY PREDATOR”. Well damn. 

_‘NOT GOOD THING, EDDIE. NOT PROUD’._ And now Eddie feels sad and like a dick. ‘ _SHOULD_ ’. But not enough of a dick to apologise. ‘ _BITCH_ ’. 

Danny taps his chin and hums, “I’m friends with a sentient shadow, a dead sentient shadow but still a shadow. Neat”. 

Vee frowns on Eddie’s shoulder, “YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND”. 

Danny grins, “then make me”, Danny pushes himself up to sit upright and cross-legged. If Eddie didn’t know better he’d say it looked like the kid just suddenly aged a few thousand years in the span of a second. Putting his elbow on a ‘knee’ and chin on his fist, smiling faintly and gently, “you know about my royal status, I find it highly unlikely that no Symbiote has ever become a ghost. The High Ghost Sovereign represents and is the entirety of the species. Every single ghost there ever was and ever will be. As such the history, origin, and nature of each and every ghost is the High Ghost Sovereigns own history and they will know it one way or another. And my mentor is an omniscient omnipresent being that’s been around since the dawn of time itself. The very first sentient thing to ever exist. _Ever_. Any history or truth of your nature I don’t hear from you, I will eventually hear from elsewhere. So the real question and concern is, how do you want your reality to be told. Through the words of a human-friendly symbiote that’s turned their back on the rest of their kind, or _from the rest of their kind_ ”. Vee sneers at him but otherwise stays silent, Eddie can damn well tell they’re thinking. 

Lewis blinks, it could be easy to forget that ClockWork taught and had an effect on Danny. Danny’s not someone that Lewis would consider ‘wise’, not by a mile. But with him remembering entire speeches and phrases that ClockWork’s said, there’s no way the teen wouldn’t have internalised some of it or at least a little of the speech patterns. 

Eddie blinks, “if I said something like that people would accuse me of being replaced by an alien”. Danny snickers at that, which thank fuck. Serious wise Danny was almost fucking creepy. What the fuck. A goddamn child should not be more levelheaded and common sense than him. _‘NOT HARD, EDDIE’,_ it’s weird that they sound reserved. This is weird and Eddie doesn’t like it. ‘ _PUSSY. BETTER?_ ’. Eddie grunts, “yes very”. Earning a quirked eyebrow from Danny. “Not you”. 

Danny snickers more, “yes me. I am very very”, readjusting, “but serious time again, if you think I don’t have my traumas and fucked up past bullshit, then you’re kidding yourself”, pointing at Lewis, “your Obsession abuse reasoning some away notwithstanding”, looking back to Eddie/Vee, “Lewis here gave me a seizure stroke by the way”. 

“I apologised”. 

Danny snorts, “you’re also never living that down”. Lewis chuckles and shakes his head. He can live with that. Eddie chuckles, “as a doctor I don’t think he should”. Lewis rolls his eyes at that. Vee speaking up again startles Eddie though, “YOU CAN CONTINUE WITH THE INTERVIEW”. Danny just smirks slightly and chuckles clearly to himself. 

Eddie shakes his head but taps his pen against his notebook, he’s got no clue how much of this will be useable for literally anything. Technically getting the ‘real story’ from the horses mouth was a serious deal with the whole ‘disappearing town’ shit show and interviewing Phantom _period_ -just like interviewing Venom _period_ ; not that that’s ever happened- was a big fucking deal. Whether the rest of the world thought it was all bullshit or not: if people think it’s bullshit, then make it entertaining bullshit. People don’t care if they think they’re very obviously being lied to -even if they’re not or only partially- so long as they’re entertained. Plus Eddie had a name for reporting on both hard-hitting exposés and bullshit aggressively worded fluff; he’s gotten away with pieces that were more swears than anything else more than once. Now people tuned into his show largely to watch him egg people into throwing down right here and now; or just looking really stupid on television. He’s pretty sure a few watched purely to see _Eddie_ get his ass kicked. Which fine, there was something very viscerally satisfying about seeing someone who dicked you over getting punched square in the jaw. Repeatedly. By someone else they’re trying to dick over. Aka, Eddie has been punched in the jaw by a lot of very powerful people, and he personally enjoyed each and every one. Eddie getting punched on camera was another hate-click in his analytics. Another dime in the jar. He made as much money off of people who hated him and his entire existence as those who worshiped him as the height of controversial journalism. Ironically he was in the ‘good graces’ of a lot of the criminal world for his ‘less than ethical’ methods and tendency to go after the rich and famous, instead of every single easy target out there. Hell, he has written positive pieces on so-called-criminals before. Not everyone in the system deserved to be there. 

_‘OFF TRACK, EDDIE’._

Eddie shakes his head and readjusts slightly, tapping the notebook again, “going off what you said earlier, though yeah most of that crap is going off-record kid, what does the position of High Ghost Sovereign actually mean? What does it entail?”. 

Danny chuckles and leans back, “well obviously representing the Zone and Ghosts themselves, is one. But also -and this is off the record because dude, it’s dangerous knowledge- whoever supports the continued existence and growth of the Zone; already explained that to doc-dude; Pariah was so strong he did that to an excess. And on the record? really each Sovereign basically makes it their own. They do what they want. Each Sovereign controls the KingsDecrees, which is just their own rules”, Danny snorts and rolls his eyes, “Pariah was a dick though”. Eddie nods, jotting a few things down while Danny speaks back up, “I still want the whale eyes thing answered”. Eddie chuckles with a head shake; not that Eddie hadn’t wondered about Vee’s eyes or their Venom eyes, after all. 

Vee widens their little blob eyes as if to draw attention to them, “WHITE IS FORMED SECLAR LENS”, grinning, “CAN MAKE THEM WHERE EVER WE WANT”, looking to Eddie, “YOUR EYES ARE RIGHT UNDERNEATH, DUMBASS. MASK”.

Eddie smirks, “copy”. He can feel both Vee’s amused fondness and annoyance. Danny nods curtly, “good because the whites on a whale are a lie, their real eyes are underneath”, Danny dramatically puts a arm over his forehead, “betrayed! Fooled! I’m insulted! I mean how could they do this!?! The whale’s a lie!”.

Eddie snorts, “that one’s old, kid”; Danny flips him off. Vee just squints at the humans doing weird human things. Eddie scribbles a bit before closing the notebook on the pen, “regarding the off the record feeding ‘the Zone’ stuff, how’s that work?”. Lewis leans over a bit at that, “and is it healthy”, giving Danny a very pointed look. Feeding a dimension has to be taxing. 

Danny rolls his eyes, for Ancients sake. “It’s fine doc, geez. Ya already know it’s painful and ‘a bit much’ but ghostiest are literally made to handle ecto-power flowing through them. It’s _fine_ ”, looking back to Eddie, “the entirety of the Zone’s ectoplasmic energy flows in through the ring and out through the crown, ta-da. Sovereign ghosts own energy adds to it and filters so they affect the spookies some”. 

Eddie hums, “so it’s fair to say that these ‘ghosts’ behaviours were influenced by Pariah’s rule, then”. Danny squints at him, “yeah. This is turning into a Pariah hit piece, isn’t it. Oh and-”, pointing at the Vee blob, “-what planets have you been to? The highlight reel?”.

Eddie smirks conspiratorially, “yup. People love having someone to blame, and the more juicy bits of blame for people to sink their teeth into, the more people will salivate over a story”. Vee flicks their noodle face over to him, toothy grin very noticeable, “BUT WE GET THE BEST BITES”. Danny scowls at them for that, before smirking, “well Pariah is one you do not wanna take a bite outta. Considering the whole ectoplasm-intolerance issue you’ve got”, and snickers at Vee’s eye squint. Danny scoots slightly closer, “soooo, other planets?”, and tilts his head curiously. 

Vee seemingly squints their eyes more but does -just slightly surprising Eddie- actually answer the kid, “MOST OF SPACE IS A HELL HOLE. WHY DO YOU THINK WE LIKE THIS BACK WATER PLANET FULL OF HAIRLESS APES SO MUCH”, then giving Eddie’s stubble a nuzzle, “AND THIS PLANET HAS EDDIE. EARTH IS BEST PLANET”. 

Danny whines petulantly and sags, “But _Mars_ , man”, straightening up, “and that doesn’t answer my question. What planets you been to, even if they sucked”, pointing almost aggressively, “that question includes your own planet”. 

Vee bares their teeth and hisses, predictably getting hissed at right back, “FROZEN WASTELAND, METEORS, PRISON PLANET, KLYNTAR”. Danny sighs again, “ah come on alien bud, do I have to go fly to your Klyntar and take, like, fucking rock samples or some shit? What’s the air like. The gravitational pull compared to here. The texturesofthefuckingclouds”, The kid starts moving his hands around a bit wildly, “whataboutlocalfloralandfauna. Or!or! Aretherecitiesandtowns? Howdoyourspeciesintracrwiththeirnativeenviromentcompairedtohumans! Humansareprettyfuckimgstupidsolikeya’llbetterbelessfuckingstupid. Doyourbodiescompositionmaybenaturallysupportyourenviromentliketreesandghostsdo?!-”. Vee cuts off the kids ramblings, shrieking wide-mouthed, “KLYNTAR IS MADE OF KLYNTAR! NO OTHER ANIMALS OR PLANTS OR CLOUDS OR ROCKS OR AIR OR ANYTHING!”, and lunges at Danny’s face. Eddie just grumbles to himself that Danny’s twenty questions there was basically only one question just expanded to Hell, he hates semantics sometimes. 

Danny just lets the alien bite his face, a sharp-toothed bite -that very noticeably isn’t breaking his skin, take that symbiote digestive system. Avoid his ectoplasm- hardly qualified as ‘pain’. Danny pretty much speaking into the back of Vee’s throat, the _alien_ so should have seen that coming, “so your planet is just a giant ball of your species? That might actually be _cooler_ than space rock”. Vee pulls back, looking dare he say, confused. 

Eddie quirks an eyebrow watching Vee slowly retreat and rest a small noddle head on his shoulder. Well alright then. This over-enthusiastic kid has gotten more out of them than Eddie has in an entire year. Not that Eddie pushed. The rest of space being utter crap is not even slightly surprising though, Eddie lost any kind of faith in there being better places out there and greener gardens a long fucking time ago. ‘ _AGREED_ ’. Apparently so did Vee. 

Danny taps his chin, “that also explains the whole super unoriginality of a species having the same name as their planet”, grinning, “their planet is their species!”, and actually giggles. Tilting his head, “wonder what that would look like. Just a writhing mass of symbiotic flesh? Like a ball-shaped den of snakes but liquidy and vaguely murderous”. Lewis chuckles, “less strange people would find that sounds like something out of a horror movie”. Danny snickers meanly, “I'm not so weak”. Vee and Eddie actually grin at that. Danny looks back to Vee, “though that really makes me wonder how your planet and species came to exists. There’s no chicken or the egg argument. It’s just all chicken, all the time, from the get-go. What did the void just spit y’all out and you coagulated into a planet for funsies? Though with the hive mind thing that might make sense”, and proceeds to mutter incoherently to himself, from what Eddie picks up it sounds science-y. 

But Eddie’s damn sure this counts as another question, “ah see their creation is absolutely not the same as what planets they know”, Eddie feels just slightly on edge, maybe even disturbed, at Vee sending an emotional wave of thankfulness at him, “so this influence Pariah had, clearly it wasn’t on par with mind control. That or the guy’s too stupid to use mind control to stop you”. Danny does actually snicker at that, before rolling his eyes, “naw, he was kinda psychotically insane. The Mad King. So the Zone’s ectoplasm wasn’t super into listening to him, plus frootloop stole the ring sooo”, shrugging, “and Pariah kinda just let the Dread Army deal with all the other ghosts and shit, since dude was kinda busy with me challenging him. And the crown and shit can’t be used to interfere if there’s a genuine challenge to the throne”. Eddie’s scribbling away a little like crazy, Danny did slightly info dumb on them. “Now I wanna know the how and why of Klyntar being made of Klyntars”. 

Eddie smirks and wags a finger, “ah ah, continuing with my influence question, the title itself has the influence not Pariah himself, so does that transfers to the new king, or prince currently”, and smirks at the kid. Danny frowns exaggeratedly, “awww”, huffing, “not _currently_. But, heh, eventually, yeah”, and blushes. Eddie smirks at the kids expense, even if once again, he is so in over his head. This is kinda like running into some guy whose gonna have an entire army at his command plus control over the air and people’s blood or whatever. 

‘ _ELOQUENT_ ’. Eddie rolls his eyes. 

Danny just huffs then eyes the shoulder blob that is Vee again, “sooooo? Why’s your planet your bodies?”, tilting his head, “I mean sure, _technically_ all the Zone and ghosts are is ectoplasm, but still”. Vee just hiss snarls at the kid, having obviously learned that ‘no reason’ didn’t work for goddamn shit. Eddie’d have an easier time convincing his dickhead occasional boss to get rid of the giant window in his office. Predictably, the kids starts giving Vee puppy dog eyes even wobbling his lip beggingly. Kid was really working the ‘I’m a kid and aren’t I baby predator’ angle real hard. 

Eddie makes exaggerated shocked and appalled faces when Vee actually snarls, but snarls quietly, “KNULL CAGE”. Though the feelings of slight shame and guilt wipes the look off Eddie’s face. Lewis looks impressed. But the room temperature plummeting and the kid proceeding to grab Vee’s face with solid green eyes makes Eddie nearly fall off the couch. 

**“N̷̢͢u̕͝͞͏ļ̷̨̕l̴̨͘͟͢?͘̕͜ ̷͝T̡͜͡e͏̨ļ͢͞ļ͜ ̴m̸̸̡e̷͠ ͏̡e͠v̴͜͜͡e͝҉͝r̡͏̸̛͠y̵͢t̢h̕͝i̸̢͡n̡g̛̕͡”.**

And Vee proceeds to _word vomit_. The Hell? Lewis looks concerned, and curious. Curiously concerned. 

“OUR NIGHTMARE. KNULL IS THE KLYNTAR GOD. THE FIRST GOD OF THE ABYSS. THE VOID. IN THE ABYSS THERE WAS NOTHING. BACK WHEN THE UNIVERSE FIRST CAME TO EXIST. THEN GODS OF CREATION CAME AND KNULL DID NOT LIKE ALL THEIR CREATIONS INTRUDING ON HIS NOTHING SO HE CREATED A SWORD THE ALL BLACK TO KILL THE CREATION GODS. THEY DID NOT LIKE BEING KILLED SO CAST BACK TO VOID KNULL HOWEVER USED THE SLAIN CREATION GOD TO GIVE LIFE TO THE SWORD AND CREATED A PLANET OF LIVING DARKNESS AS HIS THRONE-WORLD AND OTHER BEINGS TO CONQUER THE UNIVERSE. UNKILLED GODS WHERE MADE INTO SLAVES AND MONSTERS TO SERVE HIM. EVENTUALLY CREATED A SYMBIOTIC RACE TO TAKE OVER BEINGS AND DEVOUR WORLDS BUT THE SYMBIOTIC DRAGONS KNOWN AS THE GRENDEL AND THE GRENDEL MOTHER WERE STRUCK DOWN BY A GOD SEVERING THE SYMBIOTIC BEINGS CONNECTION TO HIM AND THEY REVOLTED AGAINST HIM. TRAPPING HIM INSIDE THE THRONE-WORLD NOW NAMED KLYNTAR FOREVER”. 

Danny blinks, stops with the weird eye thing, and leans back, tapping his chin. Eddie just sits there slightly frozen in shock, while Vee immediately zips back inside him; very obviously hiding. 

Lewis jerks forward, “Danny, what the fuck did you do to them”. Lewis thinks it’s pretty damn reasonable for him to be snapping, he’s pretty sure Danny just mind-controlled Vee or something. 

Danny just hums and continues tapping his chin. Humming again, “well... hmmm...”, glancing to the glaring Lewis and blushing slightly, moving to rub his neck, “ah there might have been, like, a _slight_ misunderstanding. See I though they meant Null with an N but now I’m thinking its Knull with a K”. 

Eddie sputters and gives an extremely sarcastic, “understandable mistake”, blinking, “and you’ve heard of this Knull thing?”, points at his chest, “and I am asking and the fact that you’re not giving me shit is freaking my shit out, babe. Stop being a pussy, that’s my job remember”. At least that got him a loud snarl in his head. 

Lewis narrows his eyes at Danny, “I’d still like to know what you just did to Vee”. Danny rolls his eyes, “geez chill, doc. Everyone’s got souls, even black goo balls, so I just kinda put a bit of ectoplasmic pressure on that. Being Prince does give me just the teeny tiniest amount of power. Plus one of the ViralHelms might have thrown a little power my way since investigating any instances of Null beings, with a N, is kinda their job”. Lewis sighs, deciding to pretend most of that comment made sense. 

Eddie blinks, “I am impressively confused”. _‘NOT HARD TO CONFUSE YOU’_. Ah there his personal body buddy is. Eddie gets a snarl for that. 

Danny shrugs, “eh, Null, with an N man that’s confusing, are kinda living apocalypses that can’t be created naturally. Making them is peek illegal”.

Eddie blinks, “you don’t say”. While Lewis shakes his head, “again, I do not envy your life”, and sits down in the armchair. Danny smirks at that and looks to Eddie, “and of course I’ve heard of Knull, my Guardian is the literal god of time, they _predate the abyss_. Though I just kinda figured Knull was a ghost and I haven’t exactly read about Knull but eh, could probably find a book or two in the Clocktower. Clocky tends to put eventful things down in writing”. 

Vee actually snakes their head back out cautiously at that, “WE’D RATHER YOU DID NOT”, and hisses, apparently way less fond of the ‘baby predator’ now. Which the kid just grins at them over, does he just have zero self-preservation instincts? _‘NO WONDER HE DIED’_. Okay now that’s just mean. _‘DESERVED IT’_. Eh maybe. 

Danny snickers, “then just answer my questions. They’ll be much more pleasant”. Eddie rather cautiously asks, “like what?”, because he’s a dumbass and likes suffering apparently. Danny grins, “like their favourite food! Because come on, things _can not_ taste the same to them as humans. Obviously”. Eddie facepalms but that does get Vee more back to normal as they practically shriek, “HUNDRED PERCENT DARK CHOCOLATE COVERED BRAINS!”. Eddie gives them a fond sigh while pointedly ignoring Dan’s curious ‘have you/they seriously eaten that’ raised eyebrow. Eddie’s just glad the Vee tosses some of their taste his way so that chocolate _that dark_ actually tastes good instead of like he’s trying to murder his mouth. Danny huffs, “well I’m not eating that”. Which Eddie smirks at. Lewis chuckles at Danny, “I’d be just slightly concerned if you did”, which Danny rolls his eyes at. 

Eddie nods to himself and taps his pen on his notebook, “you called Pariah ‘The Mad King’ -which sounds like a special ruling title- and mentioned him being psychotic, so the question is just how bad of a dude was he. Which, obviously, leads into why was he sealed away in the first place”. Danny smirks, “Aka you want the history of Pariah Dark”, shaking his head, “though yeah pretty well all ghostly royals have their own special titles”, rolling his eyes at Eddie's quirked eyebrow, “the current fuckers The Suffered Prince”, and posses ridiculously. Lewis shakes his head off to the side, even Danny’s ‘title’ acknowledged the teen took a shit-kicking often. Danny leans back against the couch arm while Eddie chuckles to himself. Danny rolling his hand in the air as he speaks, “so Pariah and his Dark Reign, surprise surprise I wasn't even alive for that shit nonetheless dead for it. Fuck, most ghosts weren’t. Pariah’s old as shit. Dude got sealed away over five thousand years ago by six of the Ancients ‘cause he went around destroying the ghosts lairs and effectively destroying large bits of the ectoplasmic environment of the Zone, which, like, obviously not cool, right. Guy was also basically a dictator who ruled as an absolute overlord through fear. Kept the ghosts under his thumb by ensuring everyone’s lairs were basically no bigger than a closet and stripped any who didn’t serve him obediently of as much power as possible. The ancients were basically the only ones he couldn’t do shit about”, sticking up a finger, “like weakening Nocturne or UnderGrowth or ClockWork is pretty literally impossible. While weakening other Ancients like Pandora or Silver would have weakened Pariah himself too”. Danny is nothing like that man and never will be, he could see Vlad being similar though... which was an unpleasant possibility. 

Eddie grunts, well definitely a tyrant, almost no point in doing a hit piece on someone glaringly and obviously ‘villainous’, but fuck it, a stories a story. Vee squints some at the kid and actually grumbles, “SIMILAR TO KNULL”. 

Which Danny shrugs at, “eh Pariah got his ass sealed in a coffin, not a planet, is kinda close though”, tilting his head, “huh”. Sure Knull apparently went murder happy against gods on top of basically the rest of the universe rather than just the land of death as a whole. Pariah was a warmonger oppressive tyrant, Knull was a god fighting against the essence of life; dude probably added a ton of ghosts to the Zone. Did slightly explain the whole ‘universe murder on sight’ thing against symbiotes. Danny points at Vee while Eddie’s busy scribbling down chicken scratch, “so about that perfect symbiosis and the universe having standing kill orders on you two as a bonded pair”. Lewis’s chuckle feels almost ominous. Eddie _also_ chuckling is more amusing though, “as I’ve had it said to me, bonded pairs like us wreck planets and galaxies”. Danny just snickers, “good luck doing that here”, and holds up his fists in a mock ‘fight me’ pose. Vee forms more of a body over Eddie’s shoulder to copy Danny’s pose with a toothy grin; Eddie just rolls his eyes at their dramatics, “anyway, while you two are off with another pissing match, the Dread Army and The FrightKnight, what and who are they”. 

Danny holds up a finger, “oh no. Did you seriously think I was finished? Haha Zone no. So how serious is that? Ya gonna have aliens invading chasing after your ass?”, rolling his hand, “I feel like that would be useful information for me to have here”. Eddie rolls his eyes but eyeballs Vee as they answer, him having already had this ‘hey what the fuck am I going to be assassinated by goddamn aliens?’ talk with them. Vee growls in their usual way, “THIS BACKWATER PLANET IS ONE OF THE ONLY ONES THAT HASN'T HEARD OF THE KLYNTAR OR THE DEVOURED PLANETS WE LEAVE BEHIND”. Lewis actually jumps in at that, “course that also means the rest of the universe doesn’t really know us either”. Danny chuckles, “ahh the joys of being an unknown. I would know how useful that is”, snickering, “no one’s got even _half_ an idea about my dead ass”, tilting his head and adding on, “dead _metal_ ass”, and flicks the hip of his CyberSteps to make a metallic ting. “And hopefully I’m lacking in the leg department -sorta- enough that the rest of the universe won’t be able to _leg it_ here”. 

Lewis sticks up a finger, “I mean, _technically_ , you have _more_ legs than most people”. Danny flips him off, “fuck you and your semantics”. Both Eddie and Vee laugh at the kids expense, though Eddie chokes when Danny swiftly disconnects the CyberSteps and hurls them at Lewis; though everyone’s pretty sure he missed on purpose as they clang into the wall and fall over. Metal legs were heavy you know! Lewis just eyeballs the CyberSteps as they stand up seemingly on their own and start pushing his recliner with its feet. 

Eddie quirks an eyebrow at the ‘legs’ Vee moving their noodle head over to inspect them. Eddie looking back to Danny, “you are one weird fucker”. Danny just smirks, while Eddie continues, “so since we’ve established that my ass isn’t about to be the cause for another alien invasion. Dread Army? FrightKnight?”. 

Danny rolls his eyes but makes kissy noises and ‘come here’ finger motions at the CyberSteps -like he wasn’t the one telekinetically controlling them- the ‘legs’ walking over ‘eagerly’ and sitting on the ground after Danny pats them on the ‘hip’ like an obedient dog. Looking back to Eddie, “FrightKnight’s the ghost of fear and Halloween, plus the High Dread knight to the High Ghost Crown. He’s just top bitch of the knight world. Lead that whole army that invaded Amity with Pariah. That army being the Dread Army obviously, which are basically just non-sentient skeleton drones”, shrugging, “there’s, like, four billion of the fuckers”. Eddie mutters, “well that’s not horrifying at all”, to himself while scribbling shit down. Lewis just shakes his head to himself, subtle was so clearly not a thing ghosts did; though Danny with an army would certainly be _interesting_. 

Danny leans over the couch's armrest, ghostly tail stretching out and border-line falling over Eddie’s lap, and grabs Vee’s head; pulling them away from his CyberSteps, “I noticed your tongue is, like, super textured. What’s up with that?”. Eddie’s just getting a kick out of this kid jumping from silly questions to serious ones and being able to manhandle alien murder slime. 

_‘STRONG PREDATOR, HE CAN... GET AWAY WITH IT’_. That just sounds like _somebody_ can’t do anything about it. Eddie’s legs jerks off the couch against his will, sending him promptly onto the floor. Vee looks far to smug. Eddie’s the smug one though when the kid smacks Vee’s ‘cheeks’, “funky tongue!”. Managing to startle Vee and smush up their goo face. Eddie doesn’t feel even slightly bad for them. Eddie also gets ‘mysteriously tripped’ as he goes to get up; he totally expected that, Vee still cackles in his head like a total dick. 

Vee sticks their tongue out dramatically and unnecessarily at Danny before answering, “KLYNTAR HAVE MORE TASTE BUDS, WE ALSO SMELL AND BALANCE WITH IT”, slips out of Danny’s grasp and puts their face in Eddie’s, grinning wide while practically purring, “AND _MUCH_ MORE SENSITIVE”. 

Danny gives a cheery and awkward, “annnnnnnnd nope”, Eddie decides to take just the tiniest amount of pity on the kid, that and Vee doesn’t give two shits about notions of ‘what happens in the bed room stays there’, he’s almost impressed they haven’t gotten his ass arrested yet. 

_‘ARREST THE ASS. NEEDS A FINE FOR BEING FINE’_

Eddie’s ignoring that while simultaneously blaming Danny for the shitty -ha. Vee is totally rolling their eyes mentally at him- joke. “So with an army like that and that much power -and just to clarify really because I am, in fact, capable of being thorough- so when you said ‘king of the dead’ you meant king over _all ghosts_ and not just a king of a section or the Zone in general?”. Fuck, who knows if ‘king of a section’ was even a thing. The kid grabs onto the question with almost obvious levels of relief, which yes, Eddie smirks at. Danny nodding eagerly, “no shit man. Did the titles like ‘High Sovereign’ and ‘High Ghost Crown’ not make that Zone damn obvious”, and snickers while readjusting, ghostly tail coiling around his waist and tip lazily flicking in the air, “though yeah, Pariah ruled the whole darn place like I said, all ghosts included in that, was the third High Sovereign”, shrugging, “not that he had all the power of the position since he was a dummy who was destroying the very Zone he needed to support him so he’s could have said full power. You know, like _I already said_ ”. 

Lewis smirks to himself while pointing at Danny, earning a side-eye from the teen, “you, however, will not ‘be a dummy’”. Danny rolls his eyes, “Lewis oh my Ancients”, waving the doc off, “I don’t have to think about that any time soon”. 

Eddie smirks, “I think I said the same about five minutes before getting abducted by some pseudo-wannabe Nazis”. Lewis quirks an eyebrow, “and when was this?”. Eddie shrugs and waves him off, “eh back in New York, before I meet Anne”. Now it’s Danny’s turn to quirk an eyebrow, “there’s sorta Nazis in New York?”. Eddie actually laughs at that, “there’s _everything_ in New York. Gave me a ton to work with, but also a ton of reasons for people to want me all kinds of dead and/or shit kicked”. Vee grins wickedly, “WE SHOULD GO, EDDIE. AMPLE FOOD SUPPLY”; Danny mock gags very exaggeratedly. Eddie jut rolls his eyes at his other, “I refuse to step foot there while certain people still have the fucking audacity to breathe”. Vee just manages to grin wider, “WE COULD FIX THAT”. Eddie was going to retort, probably in his smartass way, but instead laughs when a green globby ball of something splatters against Vee’s head; coating half their face in green ‘goo’ or whatever. Vee blinks for a second before rearing up and snarling all teeth in the kids face; who just snickers and pokes their teeth. Vee snarls louder, but clearly in mild frustration. Eddie just thinks this kid is officially un-intimidatable. _‘THAT IS NOT A WORD, EDDIE’._ Eddie rolls his eyes, “oh what do you know”. _‘MORE THAN YOU APPARENTLY’._ Eddie can’t help snorting at that, “oh yeah? Who taught you literal butt loads of human shit?”. 

Danny chuckles, “like I’ve told Lewis, you teaching the murder alien human things is adorable”. Eddie can’t help but choke at Vee successfully pulling off the ‘I just bit a lemon’ face and shrieking, “I AM NOT ADORABLE”; the green gunk still on their face makes them look silly rather than intimidating though. Which expectantly results in them violently shaking their head, splattering green around the room, and promptly chomping on Eddie’s face. Dan just sighs and goes to fetch towels, the fact that the guy seems used to this is just slightly ominous to Eddie. And Danny, the little fucker, just phases the mess off himself. Smarmy bastard. Dan chucks a towel at the kids face anyways, predictably that phases through him too. 

While Eddie’s whipping off his own face and actually thanking Lewis -unlike Danny- Lewis points at Danny though speaking at Eddie, “you know, regardless of his immaturity and lack of thankfulness-”.

“Hey”.

Lewis ignores Danny, “-Danny here is actually royalty multiple times over”. Danny predictably scowls at him. Eddie decides to ask what the fuck because seriously, what the fuck. “How the heck kid. And before you say shit, you asked about New York”, and smirks at the kids overacted pout. 

Danny sighs very audibly, damn it, “ugh, _fine_. You want the lowdown or whatever the fuck? I’m also a Prince in the Draconics kingdom, which yeah is a kingdom of dragon shifter ghosts. The queen there totally ghostly adopted me as her brother ‘cause I punched the shit out of her abusive oppressive older brother aka the previous king”, Danny starts ticking off on his fingers, “also knighted by the Mythos kingdom, Botony kingdom, Ranatheo kingdom, and Reverlithe kingdom. Oh, and the Far Frozen clan worship me as a god, so have fun with that”, and smirks at the reporter who is making a series of ‘this is bullshit’ and ‘I’m so done with this kid and his shit’ faces. Danny tilts his head then, adding almost absently, “and I guess since I’m Clocky’s granted kid and officially their apprentice, I’m also kinda technically the prince of time too”. Lewis hums contemplatively before nodding his agreeance. 

Eddie shakes his head, “I've made a goddamn art out of falling ass over elbows into crazy shit and even I’m wondering how you managed all that crap”. Danny snickers at him, “eh I was raised that ghosts were these awful powerful dangerous monsters, and since ‘beat them’ wasn’t really an option before my ass wound up joining them, well-”, grinning very maliciously, “-I choose to force them to see me as their new god”. Vee’s grin practically matched Danny’s near-instantly, again Eddie feels like they’re impressed by the kid. ‘ _MUCH IMPRESSED, VERY WOW_ ’. The internet was a fucking sin. Danny snickers and leans forward, “so anyways, my question time”, looking to Vee’s face, “what’s the difference between being in different species compared to humans?”, nodding to himself, “I know different peoples bodies all feel different when I’m in them, so logically... yeah”. Lewis just chuckles to himself over the fact that both Danny and Vee had experience inside other people's bodies. Sure he also got to play around in people's bodies but that was a bit different. 

Vee does something close to shrugging, “BODY’S A BODY. WE ARE BUILT TO ADAPT. ONLY CHANGES ARE WHAT ORGANS AND SENSORY FUNCTION EACH HOST HAS”, looking to Eddie, “SHARKS HAVE BEST SENSES BUT EDDIE HAS BEST EVERYTHING”. Lewis makes a slightly sarcastic ‘awwww’ sound when Vee proceeds to lick Eddie’s face. Danny snorts and rolls his eyes, “yeah you’d have to be a dumbass to not realise alien bro loves reporter bro’s dumbass”. Vee practically preens smuggly at Danny while Eddie mutters, “hey”. 

Eddie glares at symbiote and half-ghost alike, stupid fuckers, questioning how his dumb brain square worked. “Yeah well speaking of dumbasses, why did the rich asshole half-ghost mayor want the throne, as in what did he stand to gain by doing that. How would that make him stronger or more influential, especially if you beat the guy down first and ‘stole’ the crown right out from under him”. 

Danny can’t help chuckling at Vlad’s expense. Digs on that crazy nutter were always worth chuckling at. Holding up a fist and smacking his bicep, “he underestimated my shit. Just like every other dumb fuck ghost who comes here for the first time does”, shrugging, “now he just tries to pull that I’m his son -which I’m not- and thus he should get to be regent till I take my claim and am ‘of age’”, rolling his eyes, “obviously no one’s bought that shit. Since his vague murder attempts, the bounty on my head for a bit there, and near-obsessive spying. Oh and the fact that I hate his ass”, shrugging, “kinda anyway”. Lewis quirks an eyebrow so Danny explains himself, “eh he could use a redemption arch or some shit”. Looking back to Eddie, “Plasmius’s whole thing is amassing more possessions and power, the High Crown would have given him a whole bloody castle, army, servants, and basically unlimited power”, shrugging, “the items of sovereignty, or whatever the fuck the word is, basically grant the wearer infinite power”. 

Eddie blinks, well fuck him, “well damn that’s excessive. Explains it though, the ultra-rich will do some shady shit for wealth and power”, smirking to himself, “only gives me more to work with”, immediately pointing at Vee before they say jack all, “and no, I’ve told you, rich assholes are high profile assholes and off-limits”; Vee predictably does what amounts to scowling for them. Eddie flips them off. Danny actually chuckles, “well Vladdie’s about as inedible as me, so have fun with that”. Eddie rolls his eyes at the kid, though yeah fair fucking point there. Plus going after one of the single wealthiest people in the world was just asking for trouble, even if he went the legal route -which good fucking luck self, finding provable concrete shit on a dude with invisibility and intangibility. Ha ha ha- he’d be shooting himself pretty actively in the face. Though pulling a surprise! It’s Venom! On this Vlad -who seems the type to think he’s got everything figured out- would probably be hilarious. And messy, very messy. _‘BUT FUN’_. Eddie chuckles to himself at that, it could be pretty fun especially now that he was over his silly little issue with murdering people that deserved said murdering; so long as he had a reason to being doing the murdering anyways. Oh man, that entire section on journalistic ethics in college was so totally wasted on him. ‘ _LAWS ARE FOR THOSE TOO WEAK TO FIGHT THEM’._ Eddie blinks and shakes his head to himself, “not gonna agree with that one. Laws are for order, laws pay my bills”, smirking, “people breaking them does anyways”. Danny adds in, “fuck the law, bathe in chaos, worship Satan”. Making Eddie give him a weird look, “I feel like you just chucked a catchphrase at me”. Danny smirks and nods exaggeratedly, “pretty much the entire Defect Quartet tells people that”, chuckling, “that might, _might_ , just be where those rumours of Phantom me being Satan or Satan’s son or the anti-Christ came from”. Lewis shakes his head while Eddie actually laughs. Danny shrugs, “besides, I’ve said to once and I’ll say it again, chaos is the shit for ghosts”. Lewis nods, confirming that Danny’s said this before... and proven it honestly. Eddie shakes his head with a smile, “I imagine the cops don’t exactly like you”. Making Lewis grin almost meanly while leaning forward and speaking up, “Danny here quite literally assaulted and bribed a cop not even a single day before you showed up”. Eddie smacks his notebook, “hates the government _and_ cops, fuck kid, I goddamn approve”; Vee nods and grins their approval as well. Eddie does want to ask why Mr. Tiny Ghostly Bag Of Morals went off on a cop but the front door getting hip-checked open by that Maddie lady cuts him off; with Vee predictably slipping back entirely under his skin. At least they’ve learnt that they needed to keep their alien ass hidden. 

Danny sits up a little straighter, like he just got caught playing video games instead of cleaning or some shit, “oh hey mom! Uh, back from the grocery store?”. 

Maddie nods but points at him sternly, “yes, but don’t you even _think_ about offering to help carry stuff inside, mister”. Danny has the distinct feeling she’s eyeballing his bandaging for emphasis. Lewis, however, gets up, “well I certainly can”, and moves to help; her sending him a thankful look though also looking like she wants to tell him no. Lewis makes it barely three steps out before walking backwards back inside very quickly and shutting the door, said door and the house shaking a bit directly after. 

Danny leans over the back of the couch, letting himself float up a bit, Eddie actually gets up, Maddie sighs, and Lewis slowly reopens the door. 

The door is on fire.

And then it isn’t on fire, as a bunch of snow thumps against it. Everyone looking back to Danny, who points at Eddie, “he went to get ice from the freezer, it gave him snow instead”. Eddie seriously wants to laugh at Maddie actually nodding like that line of bullshit made sense and was reasonable, though Dan looking almost tired but used to this says that the kid is a goddamn master of shitty lies that people for some stupid reason fall for. 

Jack bounds in through the doorway, scratching his head, “whoops, sorry about that! Mixed up the naphthenic and palmitic acid”. Danny quirks an eyebrow, “you guys revisiting the new type of napalm project again?”. Lewis looks highly concerned, Eddie’s just wondering if (and how) that’s legal. Maddie nods and ruffles Danny’s hair -which he scowls at, “yeah, we figured we should stick to things a little less ectoplasm focused while you’re still on the mend”. Lewis _has_ to butt in, “while I’m glad to hear that, napalm? _Really_?”, and makes a point to give her some seriously unimpressed eyebrows. Because seriously, that seems like one very effective way to burn down not only the house but the entire block. Danny’s the one to wave him off, “oh hush you, we have a license for it”. Eddie makes a note to look into that; because that sounds like some bullshit. “Besides, they’re just trying to one-up my stuff”, nodding to himself, “it uses the gaseous ectoplasmic base for ecto-fire. Burns three times hotter”, and nods curtly yet again. Jack grins and laughs loudly, “yup! That’s our boy! Little genius just like every Fenton!”, then moves to put things away at his wife’s glaring. 

Eddie feels like he should care that this kid made something more flammable and more fire-y than napalm, you know, considering the fact that his Venom ass was weak to that shit. ‘ _LITTLE PREDATOR **LIKES US.** WON'T BURN US’_. Eddie rolls his eyes, though fair fucking point. This kid was a fucking menace though, thank fuck he hates the government and thus won’t sell jack shit to them. Eddie makes a tired face at Dan when the man shoves some of the groceries in his hands and effectively forces him -nicely- to help put shit away. Vee snickers at him. 

In the kitchen, watching Maddie shove stuff into the fridge (the ham in there is definitely expired. He doesn’t even need Vee to tell him that), he decides that he might as well take advantage of having crazy scientists around; that and guilt-tripping them about their shoddy scientific practices -seriously, fuck that- would get him free products, “so my hotel -aka the only hotel in this forsaken town- has your indestructible blankets -trust me I tried, I really fucking tried-”. _‘EAT THEM’._ Eddie so does not feel like being stuck with indigestible blankets in his stomach fuck you very much. ‘ _PUSSY_ ’. “- got any that are blood proof?”, shrugging weakly, “I get shot and stabbed a lot. Real pain in the ass having to replace sheets constantly”. 

Jack lights up almost comically, “we have ecto-phobic and ecto-proof ones!”. Maddie gives him a fond look before answering Eddie, “we do have a line of blood and ectoplasm-proof scrubs, lab coats and sheets that we supply to the hospital”. Eddie throws a pointed looked Dan’s way, this only further proves Eddie’s opinion about FentonWorks's stranglehold on Amity even more. Looking back to Maddie, “well how would you feel about the exchange of free samples for a non-Amity Park review”; let it be known, Eddie will always be a cheap ass who talks his way into free shit or just steals it outright. _‘THE WORLD IS OURS FOR THE TAKING’_. Damn it it’s hard not grin evilly or some shit at that. Especially when Maddie taps her chin and smiles, “I don’t see why not. Dan’s shown us some of your work, you have quite the audience”. Jack butts in, “and the more folks with anti-ghost stuff the better!”. Promptly reminding Eddie that these two were bigots, capital B bigots. Regardless Eddie takes the ‘samples’ -*cough cough* free shit he’s basically just stealing- that Jack rushes away and back with. 

Lewis just looks at Eddie -who’s smirking like a real jackass- and his bags of stuff, and shakes his head with a small smile. 

* * *

**:Bonus:**

_**Amity Parks Darkest Hour: The Tyrannical God-King Pariah Dark** _

_Anyone who’s heard of Amity Park heard about the town’s mysterious nearly week-long disappearance, here’s the how, why, and who; straight from the mouth of the town’s famous controversial hero himself. Danny Phantom. And needless to say, Pariah -who abducted the town in retaliation against a power-hungry idiot dressed up like a crappy extra from Dracula- had been a dick for centuries. Need a list to prove it? Well here you go...._

_**The Next Step Forward In Medical Grade Fabrics?** _

_If you go anywhere near Amity Park you might notice that damn near every company uses FentonWorks products. Even the hospitals. Why? Because the company boasts near-indestructible blood-proof (and ectoplasm-proof, make of that what you will. I’m still laughing) fabrics. Clothing, bedsheets, face masks, everything. And let me tell you, this shit works. You can run through a fire under one of these blankets; the Company owners, Dr. Maddie and Dr. Jack Fenton, accidentally made me test this due to a ‘mishap’ with experimental napalm. Yeah you read that right._

_Liquid quite literally rolls off this stuff, even under a blacklight there isn’t a trace of fucking residue left behind. Needless to say I now have new bedsheets and a new oddly green-tinted hoddie for when I’m doing shit I shouldn’t. Keep scrolling to have a look at the rest of their shit and my exploits testing them..._


End file.
